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lol. i know i watched a program on tele which went in search for the oakham chicken no one in the town knew of any, company just trademarked the name oakham because it sounds better on the chickens

3rd Nov 2010

Great. Thanks.

3rd Nov 2010

'Crowded shed chickens' is what they should be called. Grown from chick to death in a month

Edited by: "Stubeauty" 3rd Nov 2010

3rd Nov 2010

No doubt folk are voting this hot on the strength they believe the marketing blurb from M&S - wrongly thinking this is Free Range, which it isn't.

Still, £2 is a good deal for dead chicken.

3rd Nov 2010

Not the worst welfare standard but not free range and not from Oakham. They could be from anywhere in the UK. Don't believe they are anything special.... they are bog standard mass produced chickens. Cheap though at this price if you don't care where your food comes from.

3rd Nov 2010

Are these cooked/frozen/fresh?

3rd Nov 2010

Just seen the advert, mmmmmmmmm chicken !

3rd Nov 2010

This isn't just a chicken ... it's a dead chicken.

3rd Nov 2010

ut n paste fron daily Telegraph.. bit of a con really

[i]"Oakham, in Rutland, is possibly one of England's finest towns. It has everything that Richard Curtis would ask of an English location: a 14th-century church, a cricket-playing public school (Ashes hero Stuart Broad was educated here), a pretty market square, and three butchers.

That's a lot of meat counters for a place with fewer than 10,000 residents. But this is in the heart of agricultural England – a mere 10 miles down the road from Melton Mowbray, the home of the pork pie, and surrounded by rolling hills with grazing sheep.

Related ArticlesEthical labels add to food cost Food eco labels not robust enough, study finds M&S plans to take Twiggy internationalButchery classes: The joint is jumpingWaitrose: no one thought it would go to war on price - until it didLord Tebbit: 'When I shoot I imagine the bird is Cherie Blair'I visited the town last week in search of meat, specifically an Oakham chicken. A few days before, my family and I had tucked into one of Marks & Spencer's Oakham chickens. It was delicious and, at little over £5, very good value.

But something caught my eye on the label. There was a little e_STmk trademark symbol after the name Oakham. Is it really possible to trademark a town?

Well, no according to one of the butchers on Oakham high street. "They've just come in and nicked our name," says John Cork, who runs Nelson's.

"I've had people coming up the A1, and they see the Oakham sign and they come into the town and say, 'Can I have an Oakham chicken?' And I have to tell them there is no such thing."

It turns out that M&S, a supermarket that quite rightly prides itself on the quality of its food, has branded a whole line of its chicken as Oakham. They come from farms as far apart as Northern Ireland and the Suffolk coast, but none is in Oakham.

This is not the only example of supermarkets' sense of geography being a little off-kilter. Tesco has a line of chicken called Willow Farm. Where is this charming, thatched-cottage place, where the chooks run free? Shropshire? Devon?

Tesco explains: "There are two suppliers of Willow Farm chicken with 42 farms across the South-West and Northern Ireland growing these birds."

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Mey Selection beef and lamb has a label showing a picture of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's favourite Scottish retreat and the words: "Castle of Mey, from the walled garden." Only in smaller letters do you get the crucial words: "Inspired by His Royal Highness The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay" and the caveat that the food comes from within 100 miles of the castle. That's a big walled garden, even for a royal residence.

M&S has even gone as far as to invent a place called Lochmuir (again, e_STmk), which a glance at the label's picture suggests is a wild, wind-swept part of coastal Scotland, where burly fishermen land their catch. It is, in fact, "a brand name chosen by M&S for all of the Scottish salmon grown to the M&S specification" produced on multiple farms in various locations around Scottish waters.

Does any of this matter? After all, these brand names – even if they bear no relation to a specific place – guarantee a certain quality and do not technically break any labelling laws.

Yes, say food experts, it matters very much. That's because the most important food trend of recent years has been "local" food, produce with a guaranteed provenance. Sales of local food have grown much faster than sales of other premium categories, such as organic or Fairtrade, according to IGD, the industry research body. It was the one type of food that flourished during the recession, as shoppers chose to support their local shops and suppliers.

Rob Ward, the founder of the Food Marketing Network, which advises both supermarkets and farm shops on their strategy, says: "Foot and mouth in 2001 was the real catalyst. Before then we had just 250 farm shops, and a handful of farmers' markets in Britain.

"Foot and mouth made shoppers question what they were eating and where it had come from. Only then did millions realise for the first time that their steak could have been trucked 400 miles across the country to be slaughtered, before being trucked 400 miles back to the supermarket.

"We now have 1,100 farm shops and over 600 farmers' markets. And the big retailers know this is what consumers want. They have realised they need to go from being high‑tech to high-touch. That's why they've jumped on the bandwagon and started putting pictures of farmers on their labels."

Mr Cork, too – during his 43 years as a butcher – has noticed a substantial change in what his customers ask for. "In the old days they just asked for a chop or pie. Now they ask where it's from, who the farmer is, is the pie a proper Melton Mowbray?"

An increasing number of areas in Britain have won Protected Designation of Origin, the European benchmark that ensures only champagne comes from Champagne, stilton comes from Stilton and Cornish clotted cream really does come from England's most westerly county.

Melton Mowbray won its special status after an expensive and often bitter series of court battles against a supermarket supplier that wanted to use the Melton name on pies made outside of the area.

This desire for ever more authentic food has led to an increasing number of cases of not just questionable but downright dishonest food labelling.

Over the weekend, trading standards officers in Hampshire published findings that showed a quarter of all food sold as "local" in the county could not be verified as being so.

A restaurant in Fareham was selling "Hampshire spring lamb", which was from New Zealand, and a pub in Romsey was selling pork advertised with the specific name of a local farm that does not even rear pigs.

And the problems extended well beyond Hampshire. A "home assured apple pie" sold by a restaurant in Fylde was actually bought from a supermarket.

Possibly the most outrageous was "local samphire", an ingredient so quintessentially British that it merits a mention in King Lear, on sale in Lancashire but imported from Israel.

Food fraud is nothing new. But while our Georgian forebears railed against chalk being used to bulk up bread flour, we have more subtle concerns about the authenticity of certain products.

Can we really trust what is on the label? Especially when there are more than 30 separate and often conflicting ethical food emblems that can be used to satisfy insatiable shoppers' appetites for yet more detail: free range, organic, Red Tractor, Freedom Food, the Leaf scheme, dolphin safe, Rainforest Alliance. The list goes on.

"It's become absolutely crazy," says Mr Ward. "Most sensible people look at the labels but they are bombarded with information. They don't know what to trust. It is all so confusing.

"So when a supermarket or manufacturer jumps on the 'local food' bandwagon and oversells the product, either by making up a name or making exaggerated claims, it causes the consumer just to switch off."

And it would be a shame if that happened. Of all the manufacturing sectors in Britain, food production is arguably one of the most successful.

Food exports are booming and set to hit a record £10 billion this year – in part because the rest of the world's consumers have fallen in love with Stilton and Wensleydale cheeses, our Welsh lamb and Highland shortbread.

The good work of these manufacturers is undermined by the cavalier approach of the others. [/i]

3rd Nov 2010

Cheaper products are usually at the expense of animal welfare, the "RSPCA freedom food" and "Soil association organic standard" logo's on chickens aren't perfect but do show at least some form of kindness to chickens before 'you know'

3rd Nov 2010

Ye Olde Oakham?

3rd Nov 2010

From £2 probably the size of a budgie lol

3rd Nov 2010

nothing like no welfare chickens... wait a minute M&S have to be free range no? thought that was there ethos

3rd Nov 2010

bobo11

From £2 probably the size of a budgie lol

Oakham Budgies! However I am horrified to find out that a £2 chicken isn't free range and isn't fed on corn and caviar.....

3rd Nov 2010

still nice chooks

3rd Nov 2010

I'm from Oakham and can categorically state there are no chickens here... well apart from the local Tesco!

3rd Nov 2010

It normally costs me over £2 to pick up birds. Voted hot

3rd Nov 2010

If you can't afford free range or organic, this is probably this best tasting supermarket chicken at a bargain price.

3rd Nov 2010

joeprosho

nothing like no welfare chickens... wait a minute M&S have to be free … nothing like no welfare chickens... wait a minute M&S have to be free range no? thought that was there ethos

No access to daylight though. The birds they show on the picture are the free range ones not the Oakham ones. I think if people are gonna kill animals for food they could at least have the decency to treat them properly when they're alive.

4th Nov 2010

For gods sake "Its a chicken and its dead"And we will eat it

4th Nov 2010

It wasn't always dead though.

4th Nov 2010

pmsl

4th Nov 2010

scabbers

No access to daylight though. The birds they show on the picture are the … No access to daylight though. The birds they show on the picture are the free range ones not the Oakham ones. I think if people are gonna kill animals for food they could at least have the decency to treat them properly when they're alive.

+1

Although people of today prob couldn't care less and would rather have the extra pennies in their pocket oblivous to the reality of "The Shed", Ii went vegy not because I believe eating meat is wrong but because of the way we do it, so sad

Edited by: "titanwars" 4th Nov 2010

4th Nov 2010

The M&S Simply Food store that opened in Melton Mowbray (near Oakham) a few years ago soon went bust and is now a Pets at Home place (i would rather eat the food sold from there to be honest). This was because it was during the credit crunch and situated next to a thriving farmers market where real local food is sold, there's also the famous pork pie shop nearby. Somebody ought to take M&S on over the use of the Oakham town name, having said that I have also seen an "Oakham" range of furniture somewhere, people get a bit more emotional over the provenance of food though

4th Nov 2010

It's done all of the time. Uncle Ben never existed and Quaker Oats have no affiliation with The Quakers at all. These are just 2 examples I can think of off the top of my head.

4th Nov 2010

As a lot of people can't afford either free range or organic they have no choice but to buy caged chickens(or eggs).Big heat.

4th Nov 2010

joeprosho

nothing like no welfare chickens... wait a minute M&S have to be free … nothing like no welfare chickens... wait a minute M&S have to be free range no? thought that was there ethos

That's what they wanted you to think...

4th Nov 2010

Not from Oakham.......just a brand name.

Not free range or organic

They do taste nice though,although still no comparison with freerange or organic.

Other supermarkets do the same thing...Willow Farm tesco and Elmwood from Co op.

4th Nov 2010

They had plenty of stock this morning, the large chickens were about £3.50. They were on one of those end ailes and they also had pre cooked rotissery style ones too.

4th Nov 2010

Great! Now I've just got to get one before the OAP's clear the shelves of my local store before I finish work.

4th Nov 2010

pdbis

As a lot of people can't afford either free range or organic they have no … As a lot of people can't afford either free range or organic they have no choice but to buy caged chickens(or eggs).Big heat.

Most people could afford it it they cut back on something else (chocolate, fags, booze etc)...it's a case of whether they WANT to.

4th Nov 2010

Gr1zz1y89

Are these cooked/frozen/fresh?

So anyone know the answer?

4th Nov 2010

Good price for a whole chicken any which way you look at it

4th Nov 2010

adeo

So anyone know the answer?

The answer is in the original post.

4th Nov 2010

DangerM0use

I'm from Oakham and can categorically state there are no chickens here... … I'm from Oakham and can categorically state there are no chickens here... well apart from the local Tesco!

They are all in M&S

4th Nov 2010

Fresh chicken. Does anyone know whether the rotisserie style ones you put in the oven in a bag? Not the pre cooked. My kids love them and they are usually about £7 for a big one.

4th Nov 2010

These will be the fresh Oakham chickens with 50% off (so you can get ones that are normally about £4 each for about £2).

They are sold by weight so there will be all sorts of prices.

I can't get into my store until this evening so I am guessing they will all be gone but hopefully they will restock overnight.

Original Poster

4th Nov 2010

shoe*gal

Fresh chicken. Does anyone know whether the rotisserie style ones you put … Fresh chicken. Does anyone know whether the rotisserie style ones you put in the oven in a bag? Not the pre cooked. My kids love them and they are usually about £7 for a big one.